Elin
“This is ridiculous.”
It was something she’d said or thought hundreds, if not thousands of times by now ever since she’d been briefed on the actual requirements of her mission.
Dragons? What nonsense was this that they’d cooked up? It was obvious to her that someone, somewhere, was having a really bad day. She sat back in her chair and pressed the Play button. She was still sifting through the information that had been available to her once she’d been confirmed as the new commander of Base Stark, which itself was of recent construction. It was so recent it still had that new base smell to it. The aroma was similar to that of a new car, but unpleasant. So perhaps nothing alike after all.
Elin was paging through reports, ignoring most of them, trying to figure out if there was any legitimacy to this whole “dragon” thing when the image on her screen changed. It caught her attention, and she watched as the oddball scientist Kyen stepped into view. The sound was muted, preventing her from hearing what he was saying, but before she could go back and turn the audio on, her world changed forever.
“So that’s a dragon.”
She reset the video by ten seconds and watched it again. Then again. And a fifth time. Then a tenth. Several minutes later she sat back into her chair, watching the beautiful platinum-silver dragon. Off to one side she could see the other scientist Lianna, who worked hand in hand with Kyen. She was talking and saying something.
Kyen reared back and the huge wings at his side unfurled, spreading wide and blocking much of the room behind him. They were semi-translucent, and the tips were equipped with what appeared to be a single claw or talon of some sort. Spikes ran down the entire back of his body, ending at his tail which sported a clump of them. That, she decided, would be one nasty weapon.
Lianna waved her hands and shouted something, and suddenly the dragon was gone, shrinking nearly instantaneously until all that remained was Kyen. Major Mara frowned as the middle-aged man walked back to the camera, a little smile on his face, but otherwise still looking and acting like the oddball scientist. For a moment she wished he could be the one she had to deal with. He was nothing like the man she was supposed to train.
Kallore was taller, more muscular, far more arrogant and self-centered, and probably a huge playboy on top of things. Her teeth ground together at the thought of just being around him. He was a brute, plain and simple. A beast blessed with gorgeous features and a body straight out of a mail-order magazine, assembled piece by piece. She hated the fact that he was attractive. It was just going to make spending time with him even more difficult.
Rising from her desk, she decided it was time to confront the inevitable. They would have to begin training him sooner rather than later. Humanity needed him to fight for their side, and to fight well.
“Linny, is the obstacle course finished?” she asked her aide, stepping out of her office after ensuring the computer was locked. All base personnel were aware of what they were doing, but she still didn’t want to risk the information getting out to the general public.
The last thing they needed was to start asking why the army needed dragons to fight for them, because that would lead to the worst question of all. What was it they were fighting that humanity couldn’t stop?
“Yes, Major, it’s all ready to go.” Linny smiled. As one of the other few females on base, Linny had an idea of how working with Kallore was going to be challenging at best.
“Excellent. I’m going to get Kallore and put him through it. See how his body holds up after being inactive for so long.”
The pair shared a knowing smile. The walk from her office into the bowels of the base didn’t take long. She stopped at the intersection of the corridor that would take her to his cell, working up her strength, putting her guard into place. The video screen showed him lying sprawled out on his bed.
“I don’t bite. There’s no reason to be scared and stop there,” he called out to her.
Irritated, she clamped down on her natural response. Engaging in his banter is exactly what she wanted, and if Elin wanted to keep what was left of her already ragged reputation intact, she needed to deal with him in completely professional manner, with exactly zero slipups. She couldn’t afford to screw it up. Not again.
“Are you ready?” She asked the question while walking up to his cell.
“Of course.”
The response came from right near the front of it and startled her. He was standing calmly less than a foot from the bars, towering over her. She hadn’t heard him move. She was at a disadvantage, since he topped her by nearly a foot and out-massed her by double. At least.
“You don’t even know what you’re going to do.”
He shrugged, shoulders nearly as broad as a doorway rising and lowering. “Doesn’t matter.” His deep voice was filled with confidence and a certainty that he couldn’t be wrong.
Trying to ignore the testosterone that rolled off him like waves of heat from concrete on a hot summer day, she opened the door and gestured for him to follow her as she led him out to the courtyard.
“You’re positive that you can do this,” she remarked as they exited into the sunlight, both of them blinking as their eyes adjusted.
His eyes stopped squinting first, she noticed with irritation.
“Yes.”
“Why? You don’t even know what it is you’re going to be doing.”
Kallore shrugged. “Does it matter? I will do it. You wish me to fight for you, against something you won’t tell me. Therefore you need to know that I am up to the challenge. Thus, you seek to test my physical abilities.” Another rise and fall of the mountainous shoulders, his new shirt stretched to the limits across the taut muscle of them and his upper arms.
Elin resolutely ignored the way the olive-green fabric fit so tight that it may as well have been painted on. Letting herself ogle the hired help was definitely not allowed. Even if he was a stunning specimen.
Enough. Focus. You have a job to do, soldier, and you’re going to do it. He’s not the first meathead that’s crossed your radar. You’ve ignored them all; you can ignore him too.
“It seems like the smart thing to do,” she countered.
“Maybe. But it is pointless.”
She snorted. They would see about that. “This is called an obstacle course. You are to move through it with as much speed as possible. We will be timing you.”
Kallore looked down at her, but instead of the disdain she expected, he was smiling. Not matter what she did, he always seemed to be smiling at her. It would have been infuriating if the way his face lit up didn’t make her want to melt into his arms.
“Do you know what you are to do?” she pushed, trying to focus on the job at hand instead of his hands and the way they made anything they gripped seem small in comparison.
“Yes.”
He didn’t wait for anything else, including confirmation. He just peeled off his shirt, tossed it at her, and jogged over to the start of the obstacle course. Elin rolled her eyes and hit the Start button on her stopwatch. This should be entertaining, watching him use muscles that hadn’t been exercised in a long, long time. He wasn’t going to get very far before his body gave out on him.
He started with the netting climb, a personal choice for her. Elin absolutely hated it, her smaller stature making it difficult to move up quickly. Kallore, unfortunately, seemed to have no difficulty with it. He swarmed up the net, easily moved across the pipe-trench, a fifteen-foot-long segment composed of two vertical walls over the top of a crash cushion. Each wall was filled with holes. At the start of each side was a peg. The goal was to move yourself to the far end by yanking the peg out on one side, moving it farther along, and then repeating on the opposite side. The whole time your body was hanging. It was a grueling test of upper-body strength.
Or it was supposed to be. She watched as Kallore breezed through it with ease. He dropped to the ground, disdaining the safety line. It was a ten-foot drop, but his legs barely flexed as he landed.
Next he slipped under the razor wire and crawled through the mud, not seeming to be slowed by anything. Eventually he arrived at the final obstacle, a vertical wall with a rope. By this point his arms should be killing him, and his legs turned to Jell-O. That was the plan anyway.
Instead Elin watched as he bent his legs and jumped, fingers grabbing the top of the wall and pulling him over. He landed lightly on the far side and was shown to the outdoor shower by the private who had been waiting at the end just in case. She walked up to him as he rinsed mud and dirt from his body, not bothering to glance at her stopwatch. He didn’t need the ego boost.
“Anything else?” he asked, stepping out of the water and grabbing the shirt from her.
Elin closed her eyes as he pulled it on, not needing to see just how his body moved and flexed as he tugged the garment on. It quickly adhered to his skin worse than before with the addition of the moisture. Elin gritted her jaw. This was not nearly as easy as she’d hoped it would be.
“Dry yourself off,” she instructed, trying to keep her voice cold but failing miserably. “Since it’s obvious your body is in fine working order, we’ll switch to your brain.”
He grinned at her. “Oh, you noticed, did you?”
Of course she’d noticed. How could anyone not notice the giant with light ash-blond hair standing in their midst? The pale blue and green undertones highlighted the white of his skin and matched up perfectly with his eyes. Gorgeous deep-set electric-blue eyes that had been striving to tear down the walls in her eyes since the very first day she’d laid eyes upon him and asked him just what he would fight for.
While he waited for an answer, the dragon shifter pushed a hand through his hair, moving the wet mop back off his forehead, revealing his facial features for all to see. Strong lines, without harsh edges, strong and yet gentle at the same time. His jaw was well defined without being too large, and always clean of stubble, which spoke highly to her military training. And his hands…
“Noticed what?”
Kallore’s grin compressed slightly, but it never went away. “You noticed.” This time it was a statement.
To her surprise Elin laughed. “Let’s go, Hulk. There’s one muscle of yours we haven’t tested yet. Let’s see if it’s as quick as the rest of you to recover.”
She looked back at the slightly strangled noise that came out of his throat and arched an eyebrow. “Is there a problem with us seeing how your brain is doing? Or is that too much for the big bad dragon?”
Brilliant white teeth flashed in the sunlight. “I think I can manage a good showing for you.” He winked.
Elin turned back, hopefully before he could register the blush spreading across her face. She hadn’t intended to leave her comment open to misinterpretation. Especially not from him. The last thing she needed, or even wanted, was to make things with Kallore sexual. That was a strict no-go in her books. Not if she wanted to avoid ruining her reputation.
Again.
“Come on,” she said gruffly. “It’s time to give you a crash course on cell phones and computers, so that we can begin bringing you up to speed on all the history you’ve missed.”
Perhaps realizing that he’d overstepped his bounds, Kallore fell in step on her right without another word, following her back into the base. She’d had a room prepared ahead of time for this lesson, and they headed there now.
“All right hotshot, know what any of these are?” She pointed to a table filled with tech goodies.
“No.”
The word came reluctantly, and Elin scored a mental point for herself. “This is a cell phone,” she began, picking up the matte black rectangular object. “It can do…a hell of a lot of really cool shit.”
***
“Okay, what next?”
Major Mara shook her head. She didn’t have anything else planned. They’d breezed through the first two days of her technology training in an afternoon. The speed with which the light-haired giant picked up things wasn’t just amazing, it was scary. By the end of the first hour they’d been through the basics of cell phones and computers. Now he could browse the internet, send messages, emails, and was even beginning to tinker with customizing the phone she’d assigned to him as “his.” She’d come back from a washroom break to find him installing a new app on his phone that he’d decided on his own would be helpful.
“I have nothing else planned,” she admitted. “I hadn’t expected to move this fast.”
Kallore gave her a tight smile, and to her surprise she thought he might have even blushed a little at the compliment. “You’re a good teacher.”
Just when she’d begun to think he was too full of himself, arrogant and cocksure beyond belief, he came out with a compliment that sounded completely genuine.
“Thank you.” Elin needed to be wary, however, of not falling into the trap of comfort around his easy-going nature. It would be far too simple to allow that to happen. Already she’d had to stop herself from fiddling with her hair when he looked at her.
This was a job, she reminded herself, nothing more.
“Does this mean it’s back to my cell?”
“For now. We’ll get you transferred to an actual room tomorrow. Until then, sit tight and get some rest. Now that you know how to use technology, we’re just about ready to start on the fun part.”
Kallore frowned, getting swiftly to his feet as she began to rise. Elin had noticed he had a few antiquated notions about proper decorum around a woman. She didn’t mind it herself. Ever since she’d donned the uniform, acts of chivalry had become few and far between for her while she was on base. General politeness was still a thing of course, but his efforts to run ahead to open the door for her, or how he stood until she was seated, or rose first out of respect to her, those were appreciated.
Still, she was careful not to let it show too much. The last thing Kallore needed was another boost to his confidence that he was making her feel appreciated not just as an officer, but as a woman. That would be a slippery slope that she absolutely was not willing to start down. Too many bad things happened that way. She should know.
“The guards will see you back,” she said as they exited the room, motioning to the pair of soldiers clad in black uniforms.
“Will they tuck me in too?” he asked, heading in one direction while she went the other.
“If we could find a blanket big enough for your ego, I’m sure they would try. Though I didn’t realize they were your type.” Elin turned and walked away, her eyes wide.
She had just flirted with him! After everything she’d told herself not to do, she’d gone and done it anyway.
Kallore’s booming laughter filled the hallway, seeming to chase after her as she fled. There was no way to frame it otherwise; she was fleeing the scene, unwilling to stick around to deal with the aftermath of what her comment had brought forth. One thing was certain, however, little as she wished to admit it.
The next few days were going to be interesting.